Peers set for reforms showdown

Peers were on a collision course with ministers over the Government's plans for a massive constitutional shake-up.

The long-running row was coming to a climax with the House of Lords voting on a move to send the Government's planned reforms to a special select committee for debate.

The Government has branded that a delaying tactic which would effectively wreck the Constitutional Reform Bill.

The Bill would scrap the ancient office of Lord Chancellor, set up a Supreme Court as a final court of appeal and eject the law lords from the upper chamber as well as establish a Judicial Appointments Commission.

The Government's plans are opposed by a powerful coalition of law lords, including the Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf, and Tory peers.

Last week Lord Woolf, the most senior judge in England and Wales, said proposals for a new supreme court to replace the House of Lords as the highest court in the land would create a "second class" institution which was the "poor relation" of others around the world.

If, at the end of an eight hour second reading debate, peers did back senior law lord Lord Lloyd of Berwick's move to send the Bill to a special select committee, the Government's Parliamentary timetable would be thrown into chaos.

Ministers have threatened to re-introduce the Bill in the Commons and then force the measure through using the Parliament Act - designed to overcome peers' objections to a measure approved by MPs.

But that could mean the row dragging on into next year, with a General Election looming.

The current Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, urged peers not to delay the Bill. He said the legislation had been consulted on in detail for seven months and would be debated in Parliament for many months to come.